


When The Night Has Come

by HK44



Series: Prompts: 2017 Edition! [12]
Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Ficlet, M/M, Prompt Fill, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 17:19:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10858548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HK44/pseuds/HK44
Summary: The moment Jason realizes he's head over heels for Billy Cranston is not the best one.





	When The Night Has Come

**Author's Note:**

> anonymous asked: thank you so much for all these cranscott fics that you wrote!! if you have time, can you make one with jason realizing that this warm feeling inside him towards billy (which he first realized on "that scene" on the deck) is love? thank you!

The air tasted like salt.

Like salt.

Like tears.

Like the tears that were welling down Jason’s face as he stared, helpless, at Billy’s unmoving, untouched body. Kim’s hands were shifting above him. Not breaching the bubble that Billy had- _used_ to have inflated around himself.

Then she shook, gave a soft wail and checked his pulse.

Jason’s heart skipped a beat.

She shook and checked his wrists.

Everything seemed to slow down. And reverse.

Time turned backwards.

Kim checked for a pulse on his exposed throat. Billy’s head was titled backwards. He wasn’t breathing. There was a rope. There wasn’t. He wasn’t there anymore. In the water. Jason tied up. Everyone screaming. A burst of light. Rita talking.

Billy’s brown eyes.

His smile.

Jason exhaled sharply, coming back to the world with a snap.

But it was all still so slow and time still felt like molasses, drenching down in a slow syrup drip over Jason’s entire being. Sticky. Clouding him from everything like a barrier.

 _Should’ve been me,_ he thought.

Everything froze. For the barest of a second, everything was stopped.

 _Should’ve been me_ , he thought again.

He could almost see Billy’s pretty brown eyes and soft, soft grin staring back at him.

Time hit him hard. Kim was clenching paper in her fist and yelling at them. Jason’s mind snapped auto-pilot. He hefted one of Billy’s legs. His jeans were wet. His body was heavy.

Everything about this moment seemed broken.

Seemed deadened.

Weighted down like the sky was falling and they could only hold it up by the sheer force of will. The sound of whistling white noise, the kind a TV uttered in the rare blank space of a dead channel, echoed through Jason’s ears.

He moved forward.

He kept moving forward.

And above him Billy didn’t wake.

They walked until the sun was heaved high in the sky. Bright. Streaming.

 _Warm_.

Heat baked into Jason’s skin. It bore into him. And he felt cold. Beside him, Zack shivered. Ahead of them, Trini was shaking. Kim was stoic but there was a slump to her walk. A brokenness to the curve of her back and the way she breathed.

They were all glass bottles. Shattered.

Reaching the cliff, Kim’s resolve shattered. They moved Billy down. Jason tucked his arms around Billy’s unflinching waist. His mouth moved but he didn’t hear the words directed at Kim, who shook her head, hand to her mouth. He reached out and gripped her free one and pulled her forward.

She kissed the back of Billy’s head and squeezed her arms around him. Jason tightened his grip where it held.

Together, they fell.

And time stayed slow again.

They hit the water.

They drowned.

They drowned like Billy did. But they didn’t _die_. They didn’t inhale. They weren’t hooked to a rope, to a weight and _forced_.

But still. They drowned like they should have.

Plunging in after them, Zack and Trini swam down at grabbed their ankles. Pulled them down faster. Water surged around them but it was still slow. Endless. Pockets of air flushed against them. Floated up to the break of the surface. Internal waves, internal tides rippled.

All the while, Jason stared at Billy’s face.

He looked like he was sleeping. Floating. Tucked up against Jason’s chest and softly sleeping away the bad dreams. The bad thoughts. The bad death. Sleeping it all away and just waiting to be woken up again.

 _I love you_ , Jason thought.

Time froze again.

Reversed.

He saw Billy’s pretty brown eyes.

Saw his soft, soft smile.

 _I love you_.

**Author's Note:**

> HAVE I MENTIONED I LOVE WRITING ANGST?? BECAUSE I DO!
> 
> [Tumblr](http://happyk44.tumblr.com/post/160451614847/thank-you-so-much-for-all-these-cranscott-fics) || [Insta](https://www.instagram.com/hk44_art/)


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